Early life

Carol Elizabeth Moseley was born in Chicago, Illinois. She attended public and parochial schools. She attended Ruggles School for elementary school, and she attended Parker High School (now the site of Paul Robeson High School) in Chicago.[3][4] Her father, Joseph Moseley, was a Chicago police officer and jail guard and her mother, Edna, was a medical technician in a hospital. Both her parents were Catholic.[5] The family lived in a segregated middle class neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago. Her parents divorced when she was in her teens, and she lived with her grandmother.[6] She began her college studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, but dropped out after four months.[4] She then majored in political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago,[7] graduating in 1969 and earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1972.

Professional career

As an attorney, Moseley Braun was a prosecutor in the United States Attorney‘s office in Chicago from 1973 to 1977. An Assistant United States Attorney, she worked primarily in the civil and appellate law areas. Her work in housing, health policy, and environmental law won her the Attorney General’s Special Achievement Award.[8]

Early political career

Moseley Braun was first elected to public office in 1978, as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives. There, she rose to the post of assistant majority leader. As a State Representative, she became recognized as a champion for liberal social causes.[9] As early as 1984, she proposed a moratorium on the application in Illinois of the death penalty. And in what became a landmark reapportionment case, Crosby vs State Board of Elections, she successfully sued her own party and the state of Illinois on behalf of African American and Hispanic citizens. When she left the state legislature in 1987, her colleagues recognized her in a resolution as “the conscience of the House.”[10] That same year, she was elected as Cook County, Illinois, Recorder of Deeds, a post she held for four years.

U.S. Senate

In 1991, angered by incumbent Democratic senator Alan Dixon‘s vote to confirm Clarence Thomas, Moseley Braun challenged him in the primary election. Candidate Albert Hofeld‘s campaign ran many anti-Dixon ads, and Moseley Braun won the primary, ultimately defeating Richard S. Williamson in the Senate election. On November 3, 1992, she became the first African American woman to be elected to the United States Senate. Her election marked the first time Illinois had elected a woman, and the second time a black person was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate. She (along with Edward Brooke) was one of two African-Americans to serve in the Senate in the 20th century, and was the sole African-American in the Senate for her entire term.

On social issues however, she was significantly more liberal than many of her fellow senators. She was strongly pro-choice, voting against the ban on partial-birth abortions and the restrictions on funding in military bases for abortions. She also voted against the death penalty and in favor of gun control measures. Moseley Braun was one of only sixteen senators to vote against the Communications Decency Act and one of only fourteen to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act. She delivered a eulogy to Thurgood Marshall on January 26, 1993.

In 1993, the Illinois Senator made headlines when she convinced the Senate Judiciary Committee not to renew a design patent for the United Daughters of the Confederacy because it contained the Confederate flag. The patent had been routinely renewed for nearly a century, and despite the Judiciary Committee’s disapproval, the Senate was poised to pass a resolution sponsored by Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina that included a provision to authorize the extension of the federal patent. Moseley-Braun threatened to filibuster the legislation “until this room freezes over.” She also made an impassioned and eloquent plea to her colleagues about the symbolism of the Confederate flag, declaring, “It has no place in our modern times, place in this body, place in our society.” Swayed by Moseley-Braun’s argument, the Senate rejected the UDC’s application to renew its patent.[11]

Controversy

Moseley Braun was the subject of a 1993 Federal Elections Commission investigation over $249,000 in unaccounted-for campaign funds. The agency found some small violations, but took no action against Moseley Braun, citing a lack of resources. Moseley Braun only admitted to bookkeeping errors. The Justice Department turned down two requests for investigations from the IRS.[12]

In 1996, Moseley Braun made a private trip to Nigeria, where she met with dictator Sani Abacha. Despite U.S. sanctions against that country due to Abacha’s actions, the Senator did not notify, nor register her trip with, the State Department. She subsequently defended Abacha’s human rights records in Congress.[13] Her former fiancé Kgosie Matthews, who also served on her campaign staff (in violation of U.S. immigration regulations[14]), had been a lobbyist for the Nigerian government; Matthews would later leave the country. She had paid Matthews, a native of South Africa, a salary of $15,000 a month during the campaign.[15]

In 1998, after George Will wrote a column reviewing the allegations of corruption against her,[16] Moseley Braun responded to Will’s comments, saying that “I think because he couldn’t say nigger, he said corrupt,”[17] She also compared Will to a Ku Klux Klansman, saying “I mean this very sincerely from the bottom of my heart: He can take his hood and put it back on again, as far as I’m concerned.”[18] Later, Moseley Braun apologized for her remarks.[17]

2004 presidential campaign

She announced her intention to run for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in February 2003. On January 15, 2004, four days before the Iowa caucuses, Moseley Braun dropped out of the race and endorsed Howard Dean.

Moseley Braun came in fourth in the field of six, receiving about nine percent of the vote. In her concession speech, she remarked that her young niece could become the first female mayor of Chicago,[24] neglecting to mention Jane Byrne, Chicago’s first female mayor, who served from 1979 to 1983.[25]

Life outside of politics

Personal life

In 1973, she married Michael Braun, whom she met in law school.[5] They had one son, Matthew, in 1977. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1986.[9] She resides in Hyde Park, Chicago. She is a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Crime victim

In April 2007, Braun suffered a broken wrist when a mugger emerged from bushes near her front door to steal her purse, cutting the strap with a knife. Braun resisted and fell during the struggle, fracturing her left wrist. The mugger was chased off by a University of Chicago student while his girlfriend called 9-1-1. Braun was later treated and released from a hospital.[27] A suspect, Joseph Dixon, was later charged with the crime and was sentenced to 20 years in prison on July 11, 2008.[28]